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Covid: Royal Glamorgan Hospital staff 'broken' by pandemic deaths

An intensive care doctor at one of the hospitals hit hardest by the second wave of coronavirus says staff feel "broken and "exhausted".

Dr Ceri Lynch, consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, fears the situation is "worse" than during the first peak in the spring. She spoke of the emotional toil as doctors and nurses watched patients die, and of seeing people's families "decimated" by the virus.

"We are all devastated," she said.

To date, 495 people with coronavirus have died in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board area - the highest number in Wales.

The hospital serves patients living in some of the hardest hit counties, including Rhondda Cynon Taf which had 553.8 cases per 100,000 of the population in the last week - one of the worst affected communities in the UK.

Dr Lynch said staff at her unit had been left in tears and were "broken" after seeing some of the harrowing effects of the virus, and colleagues had been infected.

Dr Lynch said many relatives were unable to be at their loved-one's bedside when they died, as they were having to self-isolate after contracting the virus themselves. "It's tragic having to do this by telephone or Skype," she said, explaining family members were having to be at their loved-one's death bed via a video call.

"I was crying on Monday, I was at the death of a patient, we try and make the deaths as peaceful as we can, and I think we do a good job. We've had to take the place of the family, hold the patient's hand, talk to them, and communicate with the family, and there's been a lot of tears."

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Source: BBC News, 5 November 2020

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Covid: Pulse oxygen monitors work less well on darker skin, experts say

Experts have warned that a device used to detect signs of oxygen level drops may not work as well on darker skin. 

According to NHS England and MHRA, pulse oximeters may sometimes overestimate oxygen levels. Now, NHS England is updating their guidance advising patients patients from black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups to seek advice from their healthcare professional, but to continue using pulse oximeters. 

"We need to ensure there is common knowledge on potential limitations in healthcare equipment and devices, particularly for populations at heightened risk of life-changing illness, this includes black, Asian and diverse communities using pulse oximeters to monitor their oxygen levels at home," says Dr Habib Naqvi, director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory. 

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Source: BBC, 1 August 2021

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Covid: Pressured oxygen reduces ventilator need

New research has found oxygen therapy may help reduce the number of patients needing a ventilator. The research trial, conducted across 48 hospitals in the UK, found that out of the three methods of oxygen delivery, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) could be the most beneficial in reducing the need for a patient to go on a ventilator. 

"The routine use of high-flow nasal oxygenation, which can consume large amounts of oxygen, should be reconsidered, as it did not improve outcomes. By giving patients the most effective treatment to begin with, we can help prevent resource shortages in our NHS and make sure the right type of ventilation is available to patients when it is required." Says Prof Gavin Perkins, from the Warwick Medical School. 

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Source: BBC News, 05 August 2021

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Covid: Pregnant women targeted with false vaccine claims

Covid vaccination advice in pregnancy has not changed, contrary to false social media posts, UK health agencies have clarified.

Inaccurate messages shared by thousands claimed that pregnant or breastfeeding women were now recommended not to take the vaccine.

In fact, the NHS says the vaccine is both safe and strongly recommended for this group.

The misleading claim came from a now out-of-date document from 2020. The document went viral after a Twitter user - whose account has since been suspended - shared a post stating incorrectly that the UK government had, "quietly remove[d] approval for use of Covid vax in pregnant and breastfeeding women".

She linked to a report from December 2020 which said, "reassurance of safe use of the vaccine in pregnant women cannot be provided at the present time", because of an absence of data and that, "women who are breastfeeding should also not be vaccinated".

This was true at the time, but since then data has been gathered finding no link between the vaccine and problems in pregnancy or birth. In fact, the Covid vaccine seems to reduce the risk of still-birth and pre-term delivery.

And unvaccinated pregnant women are more likely to need hospital treatment if they catch Covid, especially in the third trimester.

This evidence led to the recommendation being changed - so the statement found in this report no longer stands.

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Source: BBC News, 1 September 2022

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Covid: Pregnant women in Wales 'still go it alone'

Pregnant women are facing a postcode lottery over whether they can bring a partner to maternity appointments.

Health boards were given flexibility in November to allow pregnant woman in low Covid rate areas to take their partners to maternity appointments.

But many parts of Wales with the lowest rates are still forcing pregnant women to attend some appointments alone.

There are calls, as lockdown eases, for partners Wales-wide to be allowed to all appointments and during labour.

Emma Fear, 30, was not able to take her partner with her to hospital when she experienced bleeding during pregnancy in June last year and was told, alone, that she was losing her baby.

She then had to repeat the news to her partner, who was waiting outside in the car.

"At the time, he could have come and sat outside a pub with me, but he couldn't come with me when I'd had severe bleeding and knew I had probably lost my baby."

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Source: BBC News, 2 May 2021

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Covid: Over-70s can contact NHS for vaccine in England

People aged 70 or older in England who have not yet had their coronavirus vaccine but would like to are being asked to contact the NHS.

A national booking system can be accessed online or people can call 119 free of change between 7am and 11pm.

At a Downing Street news briefing, deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam urged people to get the vaccine "without delay".

"Protect yourself against the clear and present danger," he said.

He said the vaccines worked very well against the "immediate threat" of the Kent variant of coronavirus circulating in the UK.

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Source: BBC News, 8 February 2021

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Covid: Nurses condemn 'fundamentally flawed' PPE rules

Nurse leaders are lobbying government to update "fundamentally flawed" guidance on personal protective equipment.

The Royal College of Nursing says the existing recommendations are based on out-of-date evidence. One nurse told the BBC she had not been allowed to wear a higher-grade mask, despite having to go into the homes of patients with Covid.

The nurse, who wishes to remain anonymous, wanted to use what's known as an FFP3 mask that filters out infectious aerosols. But she says her employers insisted on following national guidance, that most health staff should wear thinner surgical masks, instead.

This comes at a time of mounting concern among many healthcare organisations that personal protective equipment (PPE) is inadequate.

A new report for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) criticises the official guidelines for PPE as "fundamentally flawed" because they're based on out-of-date evidence. It says that the risk of infection by aerosols is not given enough emphasis and that key research papers highlighting the possibility of airborne transmission have not been considered.

The RCN's report concludes that key research papers on aerosols appear to have been ignored and that the terms used to search for new papers were likely to be "biased against" those on airborne transmission.

The lead author of the study, Prof Dinah Gould, says she is "very disappointed" at the review for not taking into account the latest science.

"A year into the pandemic, the review needs replacing. It needs updating and we should be able to offer healthcare workers and patients better than what we're offering them now."

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Source: BBC News, 7 March 2021

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Covid: NHS staff sickness has 'huge impact' on care

One in 10 staff at some Welsh health boards are off sick or self-isolating, BBC Wales has been told.

The NHS Confederation said staffing problems were having a "huge impact".

It said the overall NHS Wales absence rate was between 8% and 9%, but some services have up to half their staff absent.

Monthly absence rates in December are usually about 5%, but Aneurin Bevan, Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Betsi Cadwaladr health boards have rates of about 10%.

Welsh NHS Confederation director Darren Hughes told Wales Live the NHS was in "the same storm but different parts will definitely be in different boats", with absence rates higher in areas hit hardest by coronavirus.

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Source: BBC News, 10 December 2020

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Covid: NHS staff helped through crisis by 'wobble room'

In small room in the Royal Derby Hospital, there's a table bearing a laminated sign. "You are not alone," it says. It continues: "Kindness will get you through. Embrace the challenge. Look after each other. You are stronger than you think."

This is the "wobble room", set aside not for patients but for front-line staff to get them away - briefly - from the intense pressure and strain experienced in the first wave of COVID-19.

"We made a wobble room because that's what we needed," Kelly-Ann Gurney, an intensive-care nurse, told the BBC. "It's a room where staff could just go and sit and cry if they needed to and get it all out and then come back and 'put their face on' and get back into it again."

Now the second wave is hitting the hospital, and the need for the room is just as great.

Concerns are growing about the physical and mental health of front-line NHS staff. There has been no lull since the April peak of the virus as normal treatments and operations, postponed during the crisis, have returned to hospitals.

Caroline Swan, a senior sister and manager of the intensive care unit at the Royal Derby, says she is ready to face what is ahead but feels very tired. "I am also very concerned. My staff are very tired and stressed out. We have a lot of sickness either due to burnout or they are unwell," she says.

"A lot of staff have to self-isolate at home - and that puts a lot of strain on staffing here."

Dr Magnus Harrison, medical director of the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust, says managing rotas is getting harder due to staff sickness and the need for some to self-isolate if family members are infected.

"It is worth acknowledging what staff did in the first wave. They behaved tremendously and worked incredibly hard, and we're expecting them to do it again in winter - and Covid numbers could be higher than in the first wave. People are tired out."

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Source: BBC News, 10 November 2020

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Covid: NHS ready for new vaccine roll-out, says Hancock

The NHS is ready to start providing the new coronavirus vaccine "as fast as safely possible", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Asked whether it could be available by Christmas, he said that was "absolutely a possibility" - but he expected the mass roll-out "in the first part of next year".

He said vaccination clinics would be open seven days a week, and he was giving GPs an extra £150m.

On Monday, early results from the world's first effective coronavirus vaccine showed it could prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid. The vaccine has been developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech and is one of 11 vaccines that are currently in the final stages of testing.

The UK has already ordered 40 million doses - enough to vaccinate up to 20 million people as each person will need two doses for it to work effectively.

Asked how many people would need to be vaccinated before life can return to normal, Matt Hancock said: "Well the answer to that is we just don't know."

"So the trials can tell you if a vaccine is clinically safe and if it's effective at protecting an individual from the disease. What we can't know, until we've vaccinated a significant proportion of the population, is how much it stops the transmission of the disease."

Mr Hancock told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it would be "a mammoth logistical operation" and highlighted some of the challenges, including getting it from Belgium to the UK while not removing from a temperature of -70C more than four times.

Older care home residents and care home staff are at the top of a list from government scientific advisers of who would get immunised first, followed by health workers. Mr Hancock said NHS staff would go into care homes to vaccinate residents, as well as setting up vaccination venues. Children would not be vaccinated, he said.

However, Prof Sir John Bell from Oxford University said: "I would worry about not giving this to as wide a percentage of the population as we can."

"I'm more of the view that we need to vaccinate further into the population and vaccinate younger people as well, partly because we don't really know what the long term effects of this disease are."

The vaccine will not be released for use until it passes final safety tests and gets the go-ahead from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

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Source: BBC News, 10 November 2020

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Covid: Millions invited for booster jabs

Millions of people will be invited for their autumn Covid booster jab in England and Scotland, with care home residents the first to receive them.

Although infections are falling, health bosses are predicting a resurgence of Covid and flu this autumn and winter.

They are urging those eligible to protect themselves from serious illness by getting vaccines against both.

A recently approved vaccine against the Omicron variant will be used first.

However, there is not enough of Moderna's "bivalent" vaccine to protect everyone aged over 50 so health officials say people should take whichever booster they are offered. These will be the vaccines used in the spring.

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced on Saturday that it had approved a second "bivalent" coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech for people aged 12 and over.

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Source: BBC News, 4 September 2022

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Covid: Lockdown had 'major impact' on mental health

Lockdown had a major impact on the UK's mental health, including increased rates of suicidal thoughts, according to new research.

The study, led by the University of Glasgow, examined the effects of COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. Certain groups are said to be particularly at risk, including young people and women. 

This publication is the most detailed examination of how the UK's adult population coped during the first weeks of lockdown, when people were given strict orders to stay home.

Researchers say public health measures, like lockdowns, are necessary to protect the general population, but warn they may have a "profound and long-lasting" effect on mental health and will extend beyond those who have been affected by the virus.

The study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at three blocks of time between March 31 and May 11.

Just over 3,000 adults in the UK were surveyed and a range of mental health factors were considered, including depression, loneliness, suicide attempts and self-harm.

The study found suicidal thoughts increased from 8% to 10% and they were highest among young adults (18-29 years), rising from 12.5% to 14%. The researchers say that, even though those are relatively small rises, they are significant because of the short period of time they happened over.

"The majority of people did not report any suicidal thoughts, but this creeping rise over a very short period of time is a concern," says Prof Rory O'Connor, chair in health psychology at the University of Glasgow's Institute of Health and Wellbeing.

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Source: BBC News, 21 October 2020

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Covid: Lack of ventilator supplies 'hit' disabled people

Some disabled people in the UK have been struggling to obtain essentials such as medication and breathing equipment during the Covid pandemic, research for the BBC suggests.

Some 60% of those who rely on social care told a YouGov survey they were finding it hard to obtain at least one of their necessities.

Charity WellChild said people felt more "forgotten than they ever have been".

But ministers say the needs of disabled people were being considered. The Department of Health and Social Care says it has sufficient stocks and patients should contact their local care provider.

Like one in 20 of those survey respondents who receive social care, Fi Anderson, a mother of two with muscular dystrophy from Bolton in Greater Manchester, said she has faced problems obtaining breathing apparatus. Her local hospital told her to re-use the filter for her portable ventilator, recommending she boil it, because supplies were so short.

Disabled people who rely on social care - which funds equipment and other support to allow them to live independent lives - also said they had struggled to obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks. Many of them receive funding directly to employ carers in their home, so they also need to provide them with PPE during the coronavirus crisis.

The survey, which the BBC commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, asked more than 1,000 people about life in the UK with a disability and how it has changed in the shadow of a pandemic.

More than 65% felt their rights had regressed, and 71% said disabled people's needs had been overlooked.

The Coronavirus Act, which granted the government emergency powers, gave local councils the ability to reduce care, education and mental health provision for disabled people if it became necessary during the pandemic.

According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, nearly six out of 10 deaths from COVID-19 were of disabled people.

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Source: BBC News, 

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Covid: How a £20 gadget could save lives

One of the mysteries of COVID-19 is why oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing.

It is known as "silent hypoxia" and as a result, patients have been arriving in hospital in far worse health than they realised and, in some cases, too late to treat effectively.

But a potentially life-saving solution, in the form of a pulse oximeter, allows patients to monitor their oxygen levels at home, and costs about £20.

They are being rolled out for high-risk Covid patients in the UK, and the doctor leading the scheme thinks everyone should consider buying one.

A normal oxygen level in the blood is between 95% and 100%.

"With Covid, we were admitting patients with oxygen levels in the 70s or low-or-middle 80s," said Dr Matt Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute medicine at Hampshire Hospitals.

He told BBC Radio 4's Inside Health: "It was a really curious and scary presentation and really made us rethink what we were doing."

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Source: BBC News, 21 January 2021

See hub resource on the 'Covid Oximetry @home' project

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Covid: Hospital-linked deaths in Scotland under investigation

A special Crown Office unit set up to probe Covid-linked deaths is considering 827 cases in Scotland's hospitals, latest figures show.

The unit was set up to consider the circumstances of Covid-linked deaths such as those in care homes. But the prosecution service has also received reports of hundreds of hospital-related virus deaths.

Prosecutors will eventually decide if these deaths should be the subject of a fatal accident inquiry or prosecution.

As of 7 October, Crown Office figures show Scotland's biggest hospital, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, has the highest number of reported Covid-linked deaths at 113.

This was followed by the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and Glasgow Royal Infirmary which both had 71 Covid-related deaths referred to the Crown Office.

The figures do not include deaths at home addresses or hospices, or where a care home resident died in hospital after contracting COVID-19 in a home.

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Source: BBC News, 4 November 2021

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Covid: Health workers appeal to PM for better personal protection

Nearly 20 major healthcare bodies are appealing to the Prime Minister for better personal protection against coronavirus.

They say at least 930 health and care workers have died of COVID-19 and more are experiencing long-term effects.

In a letter, they say measures to stop airborne spreading are "inadequate" and call for urgent improvement in masks and other defences against variants.

The government said it was monitoring evidence on airborne transmission and would update advice "where necessary".

The organisations involved represent a wide range of health professionals, from doctors and nurses to dieticians and physiotherapists. Their approach to Downing Street follows repeated efforts to raise the issue with others in government.

With health and care workers at three to four times greater risk of becoming infected than the general public, the plea to Boris Johnson is to make an "urgent intervention to prevent further loss of life". It says current policies focus on contaminated surfaces and droplets - for which the best defences are hand hygiene and social distancing - but not on airborne transmission by tiny infectious aerosols.

The groups are demanding:

  • ventilation is improved
  • better respiratory protection, such as FFP3 masks, are provided
  • healthcare guidance reflects the evidence of airborne transmission.

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Source: BBC News, 19 February 2021

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Covid: Half with cancer signs didn't contact GP in first wave

Almost half of people with potential cancer symptoms did not contact their GP during the first wave of the pandemic, a survey suggests.

Symptoms left unchecked included coughing up blood, lumps and changes to the appearance of moles.

NHS figures showed a fall in referrals to cancer services last spring. However, this study, of almost 8,000 people, captures the fall in people contacting their GP in the first place.

The team that carried out the study, from Cardiff University and Cancer Research UK, said this raised concerns that people could be diagnosed later - and so be less likely to be treated successfully and recover.

They surveyed a representative sample of people across the UK and found that of 3,025 people who said they had experienced at least one symptom which could be a warning sign of cancer, 45% did not seek help.

They also found that:

  • 31% did not seek help after coughing up blood
  • 41% did not seek help for an unexplained lump or swelling
  • 59% did not seek help after noticing changes to the appearance of a mole.

Some of the reasons given by people who did not contact their GP were not wanting to waste doctors' time or put extra strain on the NHS; not wanting to be seen as someone who made a fuss; and fear of catching Covid at appointments.

But people who did contact their GP reported feeling "safe" and "secure" when attending face-to-face appointments.

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Source: BBC News, 25 February 2021

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Covid: Half a million people missed out on heart drugs

During the pandemic, nearly half a million people in the UK missed out on starting medication to help prevent heart attacks and strokes, a new study suggests.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) team looked at prescribing data for the first 18 months after Covid hit.

Some 491,000 people (27,000 a month) appear to have missed out on blood pressure pills, and 316,000 did not get treatment to lower their cholesterol.

The team says more needs to be done to make sure that anyone who needs treatment gets it.

During the pandemic, normal NHS services were severely disrupted. For example, there was a reduction in diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of high blood pressure, and other heart and circulation disease risk factors.

Although the NHS took action, including providing more than 220,000 blood pressure monitors for people to use at home, data shows two million fewer people in England were recorded as having controlled hypertension in 2021 compared to the previous year.

Lead investigator Prof Reecha Sofat, who is based at the University of Liverpool, said the findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, highlight the impact Covid has had on other important health conditions: "Despite the incredible work done by NHS staff, our data show that we're still not identifying people with cardiovascular risk factors at the same rate as we were before the pandemic. "

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Source: BBC News, 20 January 2023

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Covid: Gut bacteria may influence disease severity, study suggests

A coronavirus patient's gut bacteria may influence the length and severity of their infection and their immune response to it, a new study suggests. A team of researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong examined whether the variety and quantity of microbiome played a role in COVID-19 infections.

Researchers found that patients with COVID-19 were depleted in gut bacteria known to modify a person's immune response, and that this depletion appeared to persist 30 days after the virus had gone.

Gut bacteria — or gut microbiome — help to digest food. But research increasingly shows that gut bacteria also affect our health.

The study, published in the journal Gut, found that the composition of gut microbiome had changed in COVID-19 patients, compared to those who did not have the infection.

It said that gut microbiome could be involved in the "magnitude of COVID-19 severity possibly via modulating host immune responses".

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Source: The Independent, 12 January 2021

 

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Covid: Greater Manchester running out of hospital beds, leak reveals

Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat people left seriously ill by COVID-19, and some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full, a leaked NHS document has revealed.

It showed that by last Friday the resurgence of the disease had left hospitals in Salford, Stockport and Bolton at maximum capacity, with no spare beds to help with the growing influx. The picture it paints ratchets up the pressure on ministers to reach a deal with local leaders over the region’s planned move to the top level of coronavirus restrictions.

It suggested that Greater Manchester’s hospitals are quickly heading towards being overwhelmed by the sheer number of people with Covid needing emergency care to save their lives, in the same way that those in Liverpool have become in recent weeks. By Friday 211 of the 257 critical care beds in Greater Manchester – 82% of the total supply – were already being used for either those with Covid or people who were critically ill because of another illness.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 October 2020

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Covid: Fewer than a quarter with symptoms request test, study finds

Fewer than a quarter of people who develop coronavirus symptoms request a test, new research has suggested.

The study into adherence to the UK’s test, trace, and isolate system also found only half of those who had symptoms were fully self-isolating towards the end of January, when the latest data is from.

Experts, including from the Public Health England (PHE) behavioural science team at Porton Down in Wiltshire, found that only half of people could identify the main coronavirus symptoms, which include a cough, high temperature and loss of taste or smell.

The research – based on responses from more than 53,800 UK adults to surveys across the pandemic – said: “Adherence to each stage of test, trace, and isolate is low but improving slowly.”

The most common reasons for not requesting a test were thinking the symptoms were not Covid-related, symptoms had improved or were mild and not having had contact with anyone with Covid-19.

Men, younger people and those with young children were less likely to self-isolate, as were those from more working-class backgrounds, people experiencing greater financial hardship, and those working in key sectors.

Common reasons for not fully self-isolating included to go to the shops or work, for a medical need other than Covid-19, to care for a vulnerable person, to exercise or meet others, or because symptoms were only mild or got better.

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Source: The Independent, 1 April 2021

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Covid: Extra 1.7m vulnerable added to shielding list

There is to be a large expansion of the number of people being asked to shield in England.

An extra 1.7 million people are expected to be added to the 2.3 million already on the list. Half of the group have not yet been vaccinated so will now be prioritised urgently by their local GPs.

It comes after a new model was developed that takes into account extra factors rather than just health.

This calculation includes things such as ethnicity, deprivation (by postcode) and weight to work out a person's risk of becoming seriously ill if they were to catch Covid. It also looks at age, underlying health issues and prescribed medications. 

Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which has been involved in the modelling, said it considered a "combination of factors" such as age, ethnicity and chronic illness and put them together to reach a score.

He told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that this score could "more or less order people in the population according to their level of risk" and "identify those at the top of that range to say, 'you should be prioritised for vaccine and you have a level of risk that is similar to those on the shielding list'".

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Source: BBC News, 16 February 2021

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Covid: Essex declares major incident over virus cases

A major incident has been declared in Essex amid fears the number of COVID-19 cases could overwhelm the county's health services.

The Essex Resilience Forum (ERF) said "growing demand" was putting stress on hospitals and social care settings.

On Tuesday Mid and South Essex NHS Trust placed all three of its hospitals on critical alert.

All of Essex is in tier four and the south of the county has some of the worst-affected districts in England.

Essex Police Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who is co-chairman of the ERF, said declaring a major incident allowed it "to seek further support from the government to address the severe pressures which the health system is under".

The forum said the number of patients being treated for Covid in the county had exceeded the levels seen at the peak of the first wave and "these levels are likely to increase further in the coming days".

The ERF - comprised of health services, blue light responders and councils - said issues included "critical care and bed capacity, staff sickness/self-isolation levels and the system's ability to discharge patients quickly into safe environments".

Mr Harrington urged the public to continue only dialling 999 or attending A&E in an emergency.

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Source: BBC News, 30 December 2020

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Covid: Doctors' leaders back postponed health checks

Doctors' leaders have welcomed plans to allow GPs in England to defer some services to deliver Covid booster jabs instead.

Practices can postpone minor surgery and routine health checks for over-75s and new patients until 31 March. 

All adults in England are expected to be offered boosters by the end of January in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant. A further 75 Omicron cases were confirmed in England on Friday.

On Saturday the UK reported a further 42,848 cases of coronavirus and 127 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test while 372,557 booster jabs were administered on Friday.

Dr Farah Jameel, the GP committee chair of the British Medical Association, said the new measures would release GPs from "filling out paperwork" and chasing unnecessary and often undeliverable targets.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have been struggling with significant prevailing workforce pressures - backlog pressures, winter pressures, pandemic pressures.

"Whilst these changes make a difference and start to create some time, I think every single practice will have to look at just how much time it does release."

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Source: BBC News, 5 December 2021

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Covid: Discharging hospital patients to care homes 'unlawful'

Government policies on discharging untested patients from hospital to care homes in England at the start of the Covid pandemic have been ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The ruling comes after two women took former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Public Health England to court.

Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris said it had caused a "shocking death toll".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson renewed his apologies for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

Dr Gardner and Ms Harris partially succeeded in claims against Mr Hancock and Public Health England.

The women claimed key policies of discharging patients from hospitals into care homes were implemented with no testing and no suitable isolation arrangements in the homes.

A barrister representing Dr Gardner and Ms Harris told the court at a hearing in March that more than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents died from Covid between March and June 2020 in England and Wales.

Jason Coppel QC also said in a written case outline for the judicial review that the care home population was known to be "uniquely vulnerable" to Covid.

"The government's failure to protect it, and positive steps taken by the government which introduced Covid-19 infection into care homes, represent one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era," he added.

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Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022

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